city parking lease

Cincinnati council and administrators spent much time last year negotiating and defending in court a parking lease with the Port Authority. Now a new Council is ready to vote on a motion to undo that plan and replace it with something different.

City Council will likely vote Wednesday on a couple motions related to parking in the city. The Neighborhood Committee approved the items Tuesday.

Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley said Friday discussions are still taking place on the future of the city's parking system. He announced his plan earlier this week that would keep the city in charge, upgrade all meters and use the additional revenues for basic services.

Cranley said the first step in the process is dropping or revising the previous parking lease agreement with the Greater Cincinnati Port Authority.

Cincinnati Council could be asked to vote on the latest version of a plan that will impact parking in the city. There's a motion that would officially end the prior parking lease with the Port Authority that's been on hold since November.

The new proposal would upgrade city parking meters and garages, but the city would maintain full control of all assets instead of leasing them to the Port, which in turn would have turned day-to-day operations over to private contractors.

Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley is asking council members to sign off on a motion related to the parking lease with the Greater Cincinnati Port Authority. The measure is currently circulating among council members. It would make major changes to the original plan between the city and the port.

At the urging of Mayor-elect John Cranley and seven members of the new council, the Port Authority of Greater Cincinnati has agreed to stop the controversial lease of Cincinnati’s parking meters and five city garages.

Cranley and seven members of the council that will take office Dec. 1 wrote a letter to Port Authority president and CEO Laura Brunner Monday night saying it is “not in the community’s interests or the long-term interests of the Port Authority to proceed.”

The City of Cincinnati picked up another win in its battle to outsource parking operations. A judge Thursday dismissed an injunction request filed by the Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes (COAST).

The group charges the city manager changed the lease without getting council approval. But the city says the city manager acted within his duties.

City attorney Terry Nester further argued COAST had no standing to bring the case.

The Ohio Supreme Court has declined jurisdiction in the Cincinnati parking lease case. City Solicitor John Curp confirmed that in an e-mail Wednesday morning.

The case involved whether city voters had a right to place the issue on the ballot. A Hamilton County Common Pleas judge said it could go on the ballot, but an Ohio appeals courts overturned that decision. The appeals court said the city could pass the parking lease as emergency ordinance and avoid referendum.

Just as the Port Authority is putting finishing touches on Cincinnati's parking plan, the organization opposing it, COAST, has filed a request for a Temporary Restraining Order.

Spokesman Chris Finney says, "When the decision came down from the Court of Appeals, and the City Manager signed the lease, he made material changes to it without Council approval." Finney says he is not permitted to do this so "council either needs to re-vote, or the lease must be enjoined." (stopped by judicial order)